Rarely seen royal tipped for a key role in Prince William’s plans | Royal | News
Prince William has been urged to follow in Queen Elizabeth II’s footsteps and invite his cousins to become working royals alongside him when he becomes monarch.
Daily Mail diarist Richard Eden said he hoped William will ask Lady Louise Windsor, as well as her brother, James, the Earl of Wessex, to share royal duties with him.
He wrote that King Charles’s youngest brother, Prince Edward, and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, are more prominent than ever, carrying out duties while the King is undergoing cancer treatment.
Mr Eden added: ‘Edward and his wife, Sophie, are often overlooked because they don’t seem to court attention from the media and appear happy to undertake their numerous royal engagements and foreign visits quietly and without fuss.’
He continued that in his opinion, another great service the Edinburghs could do for the country would be to encourage their children, Lady Louise and James to become working royals “when the time is right”.
Lady Louise, 20, is currently in her second year at St Andrews University, in Scotland, while James, 16, will sit his GCSE exams this year.
Mr Eden said: “When Prince William becomes King, I hope he will follow the example of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, and ask his cousins, including Lady Louise and James, to share royal duties with him.”
He added that “hopefully” William will realise a “slimmed-down” monarchy wouldn’t safeguard the institution, but lead to its irrelevance and eventual death.
The writer asked: “What better way to build on its strengths than with an injection of energy from young people who have had values of public service and duty instilled in them from birth?”
Lady Louise was missing from the line up of royals attending the Windsors’ traditional Easter Mattins Service at Windsor on Sunday (March 31). She was reportedly forced to miss the service due to university exams.
According to St Andrew’s website, both the week before and the week after Easter are term-time, followed by two revision weeks with exams beginning on Saturday, April 20.
Louise is the seventh grandchild of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. She was the first to bear the prince’s surname too, with her full name being Louise Alice Elizabeth Mary Mountbatten-Windsor.
The youngster also shares a love of carriage driving with the late Duke of Edinburgh, having attended the Royal Windsor Horse Show in Home Park, Windsor Castle.
Born at Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey, on November 8, 2003, her mother, then the Countess of Wessex, was rushed to the hospital to give birth to Lady Louise a month early, according to the BBC.
She has made few public appearances in recent years, including at the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, at the Commonwealth Games and at a vigil in Elizabeth II’s honour at Westminster Hall in the days after her death in September 2022.
Author Ingrid Seward has told the Mail of Lady Louise, that the Queen’s youngest granddaughter has “always been an asset” to the Royal Family.